how to communicate with beginners
Craig Latta
craig at netjam.org
Sun Apr 23 16:38:56 UTC 2006
Hi--
Edgar writes:
> If each of us answers questions quickly and to the point (as usually
> happens), there's no need for a new list.
François responds:
> Which means you find it completely appropriate that a newbie wanting
> just to *learn* then also receive ~1000 mails per month in his
> mailbox related to [advanced topics].
I think the best way to participate in squeak-dev is with a newsreader
connected to Gmane's gateway to/from the list[1]. Any decent newsreader
(such as the one in Mozilla Thunderbird) can display messages grouped by
threads, and one can easily filter out undesired threads. I find reading
squeak-dev this way goes much faster than reading most normal mailing
lists, even low-traffic ones. I unsubscribed from the squeak-dev mailing
list years ago. A "real" USENET newsgroup gets a lot more junk messages,
but with this setup we get the benefits of a newsreading interface
without that junk.
I also think it's better to keep beginning and advanced people speaking
in the same space when it's easy to do, so I wouldn't make a new list.
Beginners frequently do the teaching. :) I wouldn't put them in a
separate place.
It's not broken; don't fix it. It would be good, though, let people
know about gmane on the squeak-dev subscription page. I'd go so far as
to encourage people to use gmane instead of email for squeak-dev. Some
people actually need to use batch email because they lack interactive
net access, but most don't.
François continues:
> Well at least this comforts me in my "prediction" that Squeak
> Smalltalk will mainly remain a platform for researchers/hackers.
It's what we make of it! I think we can make Squeak much more than it
is. I have a different prediction, and I'm working to make it happen[2].
thanks,
-C
[1]
Use "news.gmane.org" as your news server, and subscribe to the
"gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general" group. For more information
about Gmane (including more detail about why it's a good idea), see
http://gmane.org/.
[2] http://netjam.org/spoon
[3]
I find the terms "newbie" and "wannabe" rather degrading. There's no
need for hazing. :) We're all learning. I prefer "beginner".
--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]
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